


Vengeance

by Chaotic_Dumbass_Rogue



Series: Accidentally in love [5]
Category: Star Wars: Rebels
Genre: Force Suppression (Star Wars), Kanan Jarrus whump, Kanan is tortured, There is death, darker than the others, drugged, mind tricks, rescuing Kanan season 1 is a bit different than canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:00:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,018
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29790249
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chaotic_Dumbass_Rogue/pseuds/Chaotic_Dumbass_Rogue
Summary: Rescuing Kanan from Mustafar went a bit different this time.
Relationships: Ezra Bridger & Kanan Jarrus, Kanan Jarrus & Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios, Kanan Jarrus & Sabine Wren, Kanan Jarrus/Hera Syndulla
Series: Accidentally in love [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2179566
Kudos: 19





	Vengeance

**Author's Note:**

> So this is darker than the other fics.  
> Character death and all that.

Kanan was exhausted, beaten, and in extreme pain.

“A Jedi can still feel pain.” The Grand Inquisitor had said, very correct in that statement.

Tarkin and Grand Inquisitor relishing Kanan’s torture.

Kallus had to leave a while ago. Something about being sick to his stomach.

“Wait, he’s had enough.” The Inquisitor said, almost bored.

The electrical shocks had ceased and left Kanan sparking and his clothes smoking.

“I told you,” Kanan rasped. “I don’t know anything.”

“And I believe you. This is purely for my enjoyment.” The Inquisitor gave him a toothy smile. His golden eyes gleaming with sadistic joy.

“It is time we tell you.” He motioned for a droid to administer something to Kanan.

Kanan winced as the droid didn’t care about precision or his arm; only that the liquid was now in his bloodstream.

“We have captured your crew members. They will die if you do not give us the information we want.”

“No you don’t. My Captain is too clever for you.” Kanan spat.

“Oh? Captain Hera Syndulla is too clever for capture? You hear him Tarkin, we tell him the truth about his companions and he still clings to lies. Your _Captain_ ,” he said with an emphasis Kanan didn’t like. “Was captured trying to save you.”

“Liar.”

“Why would a simple Captain attempt to rescue a crew member if you were not lovers? It cannot be because you are a failed Jedi; you couldn’t even protect yourself, let alone your crew.” The Inquisitor droned on.

“Leave them alone.” Kanan growled.

“If you answer my questions. Now, who are the leaders of the Rebellion?”

“I don’t know.” Kanan answered.

“A pity. Kill the Lasat.” The Inquisitor said to someone outside of the cell.

“No! It’s true! I know nothing!”

“It is a shame you cling to the comfort of lies. Where is the rebel base?” Tarkin leaned in.

“I don’t know anything about the base. I don’t know anything about the rebellion.”

The Inquisitor and Tarkin exchanged a look.

“Kill the Mandalorian and the Padawan.” Tarkin ordered.

“NO!” Kanan yelled. “They don’t know anything either. Leave the kids alone!” 

“Use the Force; the two brats are dead because of your misplaced loyalty. Do you wish your Captain to be next? You already sacrificed your children.” The Inquisitor mocked. He then turned to Tarkin, “You know, when a Jedi takes on a Padawan, they take on a parent role. They raise the child and teach until the child becomes an adult. This man, this not grown Jedi took on a Padawan, adopted a child and allowed the boy to be killed for the rebellion.”

“No.” Kanan hissed.

“That Mandalorian? Surely she saw you as a father figure, she looked up to you after all. Followed you into battle. What did you do to earn her respect and loyalty? How did you get a Mandalorian to forget thousands of years of violence and follow you?”

“Spare the kids.”

“Use the Force! You’ll see they are already dead.”

Kanan didn’t want to believe him; he had to check. 

He checked.

He looked into the Force.

He found nothing.

Zeb, the steadfast rock, was gone.

Sabine, the kaleidoscope of color, was gone.

Ezra…

Kanan tried to follow the training bond he and Ezra made. It was cut. Snipped. Ezra was gone.

They were dead.

Kanan howled in grief.

“There was a saying, ‘you want the Padawan, you kill the Master;’ it was a common saying among slavers who wanted Force sensitive younglings. There is nothing more vengeful than a Jedi with a wounded child.” The Inquisitor explained to Tarkin.

“Fascinating. Now Jarrus-“

“No. Jarrus isn’t his real name. He studied under Master Billaba; didn’t you Padawan Dume.”

“That Padawan is dead. He died with Master Billaba.”

“From a certain point of view.” The Inquisitor leered. “Now, you sacrificed the Lasat, you sacrificed the Mando girl, seven hells, you even sacrificed your Padawan.”

“Get to the point!” Kanan snapped.

“Are you going to sacrifice Hera Sydulla as well?”

“I told you Bantha-karkers, I don’t know anyone or anything about the Rebellion.” Kanan gathered the blood in his mouth and spat at the Inquisitor.

Tarkin took a step back.

The Inquisitor merely laughed.

Kanan felt another prick of pain; in his leg this time. His vision was blurring.

“What we just administered was a truth serum.” Kanan couldn’t sense anything from the Inquisitor. “Bring in the Pilot.”

Kanan looked up as stormtroopers brought in a green Twi’lek.

“Leave her alone!” Kanan roared at everyone in the room.

The Twi’lek looked at the man in the torture chair and gave a faint smile. It was comforting to know she would die with at least someone begging for mercy.

“What do you know of the Rebellion. Keep in mind,” the Inquisitor ignited the blood red saber and the Twi’lek flinched. “Your pilot’s life hangs in your answer.”

Kanan tried to look at the woman on her knees. He tried to apologize; for not having the answers, for joining her crew and leading her to this fate, for being selfish and not leaving long ago, for loving her and not being able to save her, for being a Jedi, for getting captured, for anything.

He watched as Hera cried and his heart clenched. 

“Hera I am so sorry.”

“Your answer, Caleb Dume.” The Inquisitor lowered the saber.

“Hera, I love you more than you’ll ever know.”

“The Rebellion! Who leads the Rebellion!” Tarkin demanded.

“I don’t know! I’m sorry Hera! I don’t know.”

The woman had her head tilted down. She was crying and it was all Kanan’s fault.

“Please, I’m telling you the truth! Spare Hera!”

The Twi’lek looked up at his man, who was begging for her life to be spared. Or rather, someone named Hera.

“A pity my dear,” Tarkin stroked her cheek and the man in the chair growled. “A pity your Jedi doesn’t love you like he says he does.”

Tarkin stepped back as the Inquisitor raised his saber.

“HERA!”

The saber was swung and the woman now dead.

Kanan roared in grief. 

“Come Tarkin, let us leave the Padawan to reflect on his failure.”

The Inquisitor and Moff Tarkin left their prisoner with the dead woman.

The Inquisitor smirked; in his drugged up state, Padawan Dume failed to realize the Twi’lek was a darker shade of green and her eyes were brown. Oh yes, this failed Jedi was going to make an excellent Twelfth Brother.

…

“Hera! Hera!” Ezra collapsed to his knees clutching his head.

“What is it! Ezra! It is Kanan?” Hera turned the Ghost on autopilot- there was no need to pilot in hyperspace- and ran to her adoptive son.

Ezra whined and held his head.

“Ezra!” Hera pulled him close and started to comb her fingers through his hair in an attempt to calm him. “I need you focused, what is going on.”

“I can’t feel him. Through our bond, I can’t feel him.” Ezra started to cry. Why did the Empire have to take another dad?

“They didn’t kill him, Kanan is too valuable for death. They must have given him a Force suppression drug.” Hera tried to believe it for the kid’s sake. “Why don’t you and Sabine come up with a plan?”

Sabine gave Hera a look, but went with Ezra to go find Chopper.

“You really believe they wouldn’t kill Kanan?” Zeb asked once the kids were out of hearing range.

“Kanan and I talked about what would happen if we were captured. Kanan and Ezra would either be killed or turned Inquisitor.”

“And you?”

Zeb didn’t want to hear it. Didn’t want to know it.

But he had to.

“We-you, Sabine, and myself- will be executed under the charge of harboring a dangerous fugitive.”

Zeb took a deep breath. 

“We’re going to get him back, Hera.”

“I’m not worried about that, I worried about what will be left by the time we get there.”

…

The Jedi had been silent for a long time. KO-2827 didn’t know if he preferred the prisoner making noise or the silence.

“You think he’s alive?” LK-2932 asked.

“He’s strapped and chained to the torture table. I doubt he could kill himself.” KO-2827 said.

“Yeah, but he has those powers the Inquisitors and,” he looked around as if saying the name would summon him. “ _Him_!”

“I don’t think he would. The Grand Inquisitor drugged him, so he can’t use his wizard powers.”

“Still, I don't want to be the one to tell the Grand Inquisitor his Jedi prisoner was killed on our watch.”

KO-2827 groaned. He had a point.

“Alright, we check to see if he is alive, then we get out of there. They say they can do things to people’s minds.”

The two stormtroopers opened the door to the Jedi’s cell. The dead Twi’lek was still on the floor; a burned gash nearly separating her in two.

The two troopers looked at each other in a silent game of ‘you do it, no you do it.’

LK-2932 lost and shuffled closer to the Jedi. He placed two fingers on his neck and felt a pulse.

“You want to untie me and let me go.” The Jedi said.

The strangest feeling washed over LK-2932. How could this Jedi be chained up like this? How could anyone want to hurt the Jedi? He just had to do something; he had to untie the Jedi and let him go.

“I want to untie you and let you go.” He repeated.

“You want to stay here to report to the Grand Inquisitor.”

Of course they had to report this development to the Grand Inquisitor. They will once he arrives.

“We want to stay here to report to the Grand Inquisitor.” KO-2827 said.

When the Jedi was free, he walked over to the dead Twi’lek and rolled her over so she was on her back. LK-2932 watched as the Jedi folded her hands across her stomach and closed her eyes. The Jedi leaned forward, whispered something, and kissed her forehead.

He then stood up and walked out the door.

He then returned with a cylinder. Then the Jedi ignited the cylinder and the last thing LK-2932 saw before the blue blade swung, was the anguished golden eyes of the Jedi.

…

Hera pulled the Ghost out of hyperspace and did not expect to see three superstar destroyers on fire and exploding.

There was a fourth that was falling apart but close to combustion.

“Ezra, where is he?” Hera kept her voice steady, now was not the time to panic.

Ezra closed his eyes and focused. 

Eyes still closed, he pointed to the fourth star destroyer. “There, he’s making his way to the main hanger.” His blue eyes opened with shock. “He’s fighting the Grand Inquisitor!”

“Okay everyone, we're doing a quick pick up. No one leaves the ship, no one engages. I want Zeb and Ezra on turrets and Sabine and Chop here with me. Move people!” Hera commanded.

_‘Hang on luv, I’m almost here.’_

...

“Look at all this death and destruction!” The Grand Inquisitor laughed maniacally. “You would have made an excellent Brother.”

“What I want,” Kanan’s gold eyes flashed. “Is to kill you, destroy this fleet, avenge my family, and join Hera in death.”

Sabers clashed.

Sparks flew everywhere.

Every ship and escape pod were non functional thanks to a grieving Jedi.

The Inquisitor and Jedi fought surrounded by the bodies of dead troopers.

“You are amazing in your grief.”

Kanan parried the Inquisitor’s thrust.

“I don’t want your complements.”

“Just my death. It seems we are at an impasse then.” Swipe. “I want you to join our ranks,” block. “You want vengeance for your dead crew,” Block, thrust, spin. “It appears this only ends in our deaths.”

Kanan raised his saber in a ready position.

“So be it.”

The Inquisitor was older, more experienced, hell he even completed his training.

But it seems he underestimated a man in grief.

The Inquisitor lay dying at Kanan’s feet.

“You have no,” cough “idea what you just unleashed.” He coughed and gasped for breath. “There are things worse than death.”

Kanan took a step back once the Inquisitor was dead. He closed his eyes and breathed.

He could finally reunite with Masters Depa and Mace, he could see the kids and Zeb, he could finally be with Hera again.

The ship exploded all around him. Shrapnel flew off in every direction but he didn’t care. He welcomed death.

“Kanan!” He heard Sabine’s voice call out.

He didn’t answer.

“Kanan! Come on!” She cried.

Kanan still didn’t answer. If he was truly dead, then Hera would be the first to welcome him back into the Force.

“Kanan!” A woman called out. Her voice was hurting and it was definitely not Sabine’s.

Kanan opened his eyes and turned, the Ghost was there, entrance ramp down and Hera reaching for him. 

In the fire and smoke, her eyes gleamed and Kanan was relieved to die seeing her eyes clear and shining and not foggy with death.

“Love, take my hand! Please!” Hera begged.

How could she beg? Didn’t she know all she had to do was ask and he would do anything for her? How could Kanan deny her request?

He reached for her but she was too far away. 

Explosions were going off far more frequently.

“You have to jump, luv!” She called.

For Hera, he would do anything.

He leaped onto the ramp as Hera slammed the button to shut the ramp. 

Kanan collapsed from exhaustion and the last thing he thought of was how beautiful his lover looked even in death.

…

Kanan woke not from pain-though there was pain- not from bright lights- the lights were dim- but from feelings.

He wanted to die! Why didn’t the Force let him join his family?

But there was a familiar warmth where there wasn’t before.

His eyes wandered to the medbay door and not a second sooner did his Padawan burst through the door with Sabine hot on his trail.

“I can feel you again!” He cried before he launched himself at Kanan.

Kanan was terrified to look through the Force, but he did. And he saw his Padawan and the Mandalorian, his kids, shining brightly.

Ezra was a soft moonlight glow and Sabine was a bright kaleidoscope of colors.

Kanan wrapped an arm around Ezra and pulled Sabine into the hug. He closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief that his kids were here, they were safe and most importantly: they were alive.

He heard sniffling. Whether it was Ezra, Sabine, hell even himself, Kanan didn’t care. His kids were alive. The Empire didn’t have them. The empire would never have them.

Ezra clung to him and Sabine buried her face in his chest. Kanan just stood there with his arms around his kids, and kissed their heads.

He was just so relieved they were alive.

“I’m sorry.” He said.

“You were captured. You’re excused from saying that.” Sabine let out a laugh.

How could she say that? The Empire killed their surrogate mother.

“They killed Hera. I couldn’t do anything.” He confessed.

“Kanan,” Ezra pulled away. “Hera’s alive, she’s passed out in front of the caff machine. She wouldn’t leave your side the entire time you were sleeping off the drugs.”

What?

“Wha-no. No, they killed her in front of me. I performed her last rites. Hera is dead.”

Sabine grabbed his hand and led him towards the door. “Why don’t we go on a walk, hmm? See everyone? Make sure everyone is alive and all that.”

Kanan didn’t want to walk through the Ghost now Hera was dead, but he didn’t want to let either kid out of his sight so he followed.

“Hey, ‘bout time you woke up.” The deep voice of his best friend said. Kanan looked at Zeb but couldn’t believe it.

He reluctantly let go of the kids to reach out and grab Zeb. He was as steadfast in the Force as he was out of it and Kanan was so thankful.

“You’re alive.” He said in disbelief.

“So far. Hera’s been worried.” 

“Wh-“

“Common room.” 

Kanan looked back at the kids, torn between running to Hera and keeping the kids in sight.

“Go, I’ll watch the kits.”

Zeb had no idea how much trust Kanan had in him.

Kanan ran through the Ghost, ignoring ladders, and instead choosing to leap through the opening.

Hera thought something was wrong and the kids were running to let her know Kanan had taken a turn for the worst. She had not expected for Kanan to run to her and spin her around.

When he set her down, he just stared at her with the most heartbreaking look in his eyes.

“What is it, luv?” She asked, hand instinctively going to his cheek.

He leaned into her touch and kissed her wrist.

“Luv?”

“I thought you were dead.”

Hera felt a cold chill rush down her spine.

“I was drugged, I couldn’t feel you or the kids or Zeb.” 

“Yeah, Ezra said. He felt it.” 

“We’re going to have to work on shielding. They, they brought someone in, I was so messed up in the head, I couldn’t feel anything and then they killed her.” 

So that explained why he was clutching her as if she would disappear.

“I gave her last rites.”

“Thank you.”

“I destroyed everything to avenge you, avenge Zeb, avenge the kids. I thought they killed you, I lost my temper.”

Hera let out a laugh.

“That will teach the kids not to shrug off their chores.”

Kanan let out a choked laugh.

“What do you need?”

“I just want to hold you. Hold the kids. Just remind myself you’re all alive.”

“We can have a sleepover here. The kids can get the blankets.”

Kanan just nodded.

“When you get a chance, you should talk to Chop. He missed you.”

Kanan gave her a real smile this time, not a pained one. And Hera thanked the stars around them; her lover’s eyes were their beautiful blue and not the sick yellow.


End file.
